Heads need ‘relational’ skills to manage ‘increasingly complex range of stakeholders’

School leaders need additional training in relational and communication skills as they face managing an “increasingly complex range of stakeholders”, a new report has said.

The Department for Education should also “conduct a biannual review of bureaucratic requirements on schools with explicit target for reduction”.

Teacher wellbeing charity Education Support has issued an update on its 2023 commission on teacher and leader retention, warning many of its recommendations “have not been acted upon”.

At the same time, the estimated cost of teachers leaving to the sector has ballooned to £1.5 billion in lost training costs, supply and decreased productivity.

The report, shared with Schools Week ahead of its official publication earlier today, lists a new set of recommendations for government.

‘Support schools to manage parental expectations’

The charity said government should “support schools to manage parental expectations and relationships” and provide “high quality professional learning” for heads.

The report said leaders “want better training – and time – to develop their relational, communication and emotional intelligence skills, as they are faced with an increasingly complex range of stakeholders to manage“.

These stakeholders include other public bodies and agencies, organisations like foodbanks, as well as parents.

“It’s vital that we invest in these skills now, to ensure that current and future cohorts of school leaders feel equipped to take on the complexity of their role, and can strategically develop positive organisational cultures, which make their schools attractive places to work.”

The charity said it backed calls to include relational skills in future content for national professional qualifications “and see this as a key pillar in any retention strategy”.

£1 billion cost of teacher attrition

The report also warned that teacher attrition is now costing the school sector more than a billion pounds.

In 2023-24, 37,021 teachers left the profession for reasons other than retirement. Education Support estimates the cost of training those teachers was “over £1 billion in real terms”.

“We can neither afford to lose this precious resource, nor to ignore the £1bn lost opportunity cost.”

The loss is “further compounded by the additional costs incurred by managing staff turnover”, including the cost of lost productivity, recruitment costs, supply costs, impact on workload and morale of the wider team.

“Once this is accounted for, we estimate that the cost of the current rate of attrition rises to over £1.5 billion per annum.”

The charity’s 2023 report urged government to track a key performance indicator for retention, recognise the increasing complexity of needs and wider social issues addressed by teachers and clarify what is and isn’t expected of schools.

It also called for an HR advisory service to support the sector and reform to accountability to improve the “climate of professional trust”.

‘Schools asked to do more than possible’

However, today’s report warns there has been “little/no progress” on those recommendations, with only “some progress” towards its other recommendations, such as a call to review directed time and review early career framework and NPQ content.

Education Support has issued a new set of recommendations (see below) and renewed calls for a refreshed teacher retention strategy. The last one was published in 2019.

Any such strategy “should include funded provision of reflective practice for educational professionals, especially for those in emotionally demanding roles such as leadership, safeguarding, or SEND roles”.

The charity added that “alongside these recommendations, it’s important to note the systemic reality that educators are working in. They are being asked to do more than is possible within the resources and time currently available.

“This is reflected in the way around half the workforce, including leaders, negatively describes the impact of their workload and workplace culture on their wellbeing.”

It added that “we can no longer expect schools to do more with less. We need to reset the ratio between the resource available to schools and the extent of demand placed upon them, and this requires political leadership.

“A transparent and unequivocal signal of intent would set a hopeful tone and a climate for improved teacher retention.”

The new recommendations

1. Review the way in which selection at the point of entry to schools and colleges can be gamified to improve perceptions of performance and risk demoralisation in the most inclusive settings
2. Senior government figures [should] publicly celebrate and appreciate teaching and teachers
3. Highlight the value that good teaching creates for society
4. Ensure relative real income of mid-career teachers is competitive compared to other professions through fully-funded pay awards
5. Fully fund support staff pay increase
6. Consider increasing funded PPA to lessen work intensity and overwork
7. Improve the effectiveness of the DfE workload policy test
8. Highlight resources, templates, budget calculators and timetabling approaches to support flexible working
9. Share evidence on the value of diverse representation in education
10. Profile role models with visible and invisible protected characteristics
11. Support ITE providers to ensure training is grounded in the complex reality of modern classroom life
12. Ensure more tailoring in CPD
13. Promote reflective practice and learning models that increase teacher agency
14. Review per pupil funding model in the context of falling birth rate
15. Ensure reflective practice space [is] available to every leader that wants it
16. DfE to conduct a biannual review of bureaucratic requirements on schools with explicit target for reduction
17. Support schools to manage parental expectations and relationships
18. Address teacher supply in shortage subjects
19. High quality professional learning for leaders
20. In policymaking, explicitly recognise and consider the impact of the ratio between the demand on schools and the resource available to meet that demand
21. Fund capacity for high quality mentoring for early career teachers
22. Involve teachers in policymaking, framing classroom practice as respected expertise